


Conan, Pikachu Investigator

by Rainpath5466



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: About as much shipping as in canon., Conan Pikachu AU, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/M, Gen, POV Kudou Shinichi | Edogawa Conan, POV Third Person, Retelling, ran knows
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2019-07-19
Packaged: 2019-09-14 15:24:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16915428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainpath5466/pseuds/Rainpath5466
Summary: AU inspired by Detective Pikachu, where the poison turned Shinichi into a Pikachu instead of a child. Set in a Pokemon world otherwise like Detective Conan's canon, the only person who Shinichi can communicate with now is Ran, somehow. Together they fight crime and solve mysteries.





	1. The Great Detective Turned Small

The Great Detective Turned Small - Episode 2 / Volume 1: File 1-2 (001-002)

"Oh, hell." Kudo Shinichi muttered. His reflection was warped, but between it and the lightning bolt shaped tail behind him, there was no denying it. A Pikachu was staring back at him in the discarded metal bat. Everything Shinichi knew about biology told him that a human turning into a Pokémon was impossible, yet here he was. Living proof. "Well, this could always be a dream," Shinichi joked.

His voice interested him. On one hand, he could hear himself clearly, in his own teenager-appropriate tone of voice; but on the other hand, he was also hearing signature Pikachu noises. It was just bizarre enough that Shinichi didn't really want to know what was happening. He had other things to consider.

Besides, he was stalling and he knew it. He pulled himself back from observing more oddities about his form, like how his eyes were not the usual Pikachu dark brown, but his own blue eyes—There he went again. Shinichi shook his head to clear it. Or wake up. Honestly, he still wasn't going to put this above being a dream yet.

Alright, so, Shinichi took his mental process from the top. He had been attacked and poisoned after being caught eavesdropping on that deal the men in black were making. Nothing strange there, he'd been in sticky situations like this before. All he had to do was get right back up and keep looking for them, just as normal. Nothing about all this was normal, but that's quitter talk. Besides, maybe if he ignored it, the poison would just, wear off and he'd go back to normal.

He could only hope.

Shinichi was pulled from his thoughts with a start when a raindrop landed on his nose. He rubbed at it, grumbling, but also thankful for the distraction. And a reason to hurry. Shinichi looked around him. The only clues as to where those men in black had gone was the direction they ran after poisoning him. Nothing in his discarded clothes would help, and he was certain they wouldn't leave fingerprints on the bat. He'd have to get moving in that direction and look for clues from there.

Walking was weird, too. He felt more like he was waddling than walking. After a bit of trying, he decided to just get on all fours, try it out at least. What dignity did he have left to lose anyways? Not like anyone would recognize him. Hm, that was a painful thought. Time to push that out for a while. Walking on all fours was more comfortable. It was also good luck, because the weird smell mixture of detangling spray and old blood filled his nose the instant he got close to the ground. That had to be the scent of the man with the long hair.

Shinichi crawled through the grass, getting more and more accurate with his tracking as he worked. In a few minute's time, he could almost tell exactly where the men had stepped. Then he stepped onto pavement and lost it. The overpowering smell of asphalt and exhaust filled his nose and, not to mention the rain covering it up even further.

Shinichi looked up at took in his new surroundings, having not paid much attention to his movements outside of tracking. It was a parking lot within the walls of Tropical Land, one you pay at a booth to enter. Shinichi and Ran had entered through the pedestrian gate.

Oh yeah, Ran.

That painful thought about not being recognized filled his head again. He pushed it out. "It's gonna wear off soon, no big deal." He had to believe those words. Shinichi refocused and put his efforts into tracking again, before the rain got too bad. He put his nose to the ground.

It wasn't long before he lost the scent again. He wasn't even by a parking space, so it wasn't like he could tell where the men had parked. Shinichi stopped to consider if the men would really just drive out the front exit like normal after completing their deal and trying to kill him. But, well, Shinichi supposed it wouldn't matter. The police saw them at the roller coaster. It would be a waste of time to hide their movements after that.

What now? Shinichi supposed he could try to get some security camera footage. What kind of car they drove would be helpful. He could see a camera pointed at the lot through the rain. Not that he could convince anyone to show it to him like this. Shinichi sighed and faced the facts, he couldn't do anything right now. He had hit a dead end and it was time to go home and wait this out. Plus, he was starting to get soaked.

Shinichi tried to stand and walk on two legs again, but the rain was starting to waterlog his fur and made him feel heavier and sluggish. He sighed and returned to four legs and followed his tracks back to where his clothes were. Shinichi stashed the bat somewhere where it wouldn't get washed by the rain, just in case some evidence could be spared, and searched through his soggy clothes for what he should try to take with him.

His wallet was an obvious choice, but maybe his watch could be useful too? He buckled it around his neck, but it wasn't comfortable at all, so he removed it. There had to be another way to carry both. His hoodie was heavy, and so were his pants. It'd be difficult to travel with them. His shoes weren't worth taking either. Shinichi's brain considered wearing the socks on his head to keep the rain off. That would be weird. It wouldn't do him any good, either, they're both already wet. He peeled the shirt he was wearing under the hoodie from it and inspected it. It wasn't too wet yet, and it wasn't too big or thick. It'd do for helping to carry the wallet. He ducked into the cover of some nearby bushes and wrapped the wallet and watch in the shirt and slung it around himself, tying it securely. It was a bit unwieldy, but it'd be fine for the run home. He stashed his remaining clothes with the bat and took off into the rain.

* * *

Shinichi stumbled to an exhausted stop in front of the gate to his home. Running the whole way hadn't been smart. Endurance and long distance travel was not what Pikachu were known for, after all. Thanks to a nagging anxiety in the pit of his stomach, he had rushed home as fast as he could. If he hadn't been planning to sleep off the day back at the theme park, he definitely would decide such at this point.

For a moment he stared up at the latch to the gate, but once he realized the bars were thin enough for him to pass through without even opening it, he just pushed his way through with a grateful sigh. Shinichi wasn't sure how much jumping he could have done in this state. He approached the door and stopped in place again.

Keys.

Shinichi groaned and sunk to the ground. He wasn't giving up yet, but he needed a moment.

And that moment was interrupted by an explosion from next door.

Just enough adrenaline filled his body to let him leap to the top of his yard's wall and take in the chaos. Dr. Agasa was coughing up smoke, kneeling on a section of his property's wall now destroyed.

"Professor, are you alright?" Shinichi leaped down, his shirt-turned-bag falling off his body when he rushed to Agasa's side.

"Hm? A Pikachu?" The doctor coughed out, wiping his glasses of soot.

Oh no. "Professor, can you understand me?" Shinichi asked, hoping against all odds he could still communicate somehow.

"I'm fine, little guy." Agasa said, totally oblivious to the Pikachu's second question.

"Damn it," Shinichi muttered, ducking away from Agasa's hand. Shinichi wasn't sure he wanted to be pet like a normal Pokémon, but he definitely didn't want the old man to wipe soot into his wet fur.

"Well, get now. Shoo. Thanks for your concern." Agasa said, waving a hand in Shinichi's face. Shinichi pouted. He was clearly wet and miserable, how heartless. Then Shinichi got an idea. He ran back to where his wallet was dropped, back inside Agasa's property. "Hey! No no, not that way!" The professor stumbled to his feet and chased the Pikachu at a stagger.

"Professor! See! I'm Shinichi!" Shinichi held up his wallet for the doctor to see. Agasa took the wallet, still looking too confused, so Shinichi grabbed his watch too, handing them to the doctor.

"Whose... Shinichi-kun's?" He hummed thoughtfully, poking through the wallet.

"Augh! Get it already!" Shinichi groaned loudly. He knew he was being unfairly impatient, but he'd had a rough day.

"Ah, is he in trouble?" Agasa guessed, turning his attention back to the Pikachu.

"Not anymore, but that might be debatable." Shinichi said, mostly to himself. At least the professor seemed to be taking him seriously.

"Hmm, should I call the police? That boy does get in enough trouble to warrant calling as soon as possible..." Agasa weighed his options aloud, still utterly clueless. Shinichi bit onto his lip, which actually hurt a bit. He wasn't used to sharp Pikachu teeth. He had to think fast, calling the police might be more trouble than it would be worth.

"Alright, let's try this." Shinichi bolted through the charred lawn, straight towards an open window of the professor's lab. He always had his house airing out for one reason or another.

"Ah! Wait! Pikachu, come back!" Agasa yelled, and it sounded like he had started running after Shinichi. The detective-turned-Pokémon leaped up to the windowsill and slipped inside. As much as Shinichi wanted to appreciate being out of the rain, he had to hurry up and find some paper and a pen. He had heard Agasa swear and move towards his front door.

"Sorry, Professor. I'll try not to track too much mud in here." Shinichi muttered as he navigated the kitchen counter. He leaped to the island and almost slid off the other side. He picked up a pad of paper sitting next to some sort of experiment and its accompanying pencil. He hurriedly scribbled a message as Agasa finally finished coming indoors.

"You troublesome thing, get out." He scolded gently, more exasperated than anything. Shinichi whipped the pad of paper around to show the doctor his message. The old man froze in place, eyebrows arched high. He took the pad of paper from Shinichi and read it more closely. "Hm. I see," he muttered, "I've heard of people teaching their Pokémon to write."

Shinichi put his face in his paws. He recovered quickly to snatch the paper back and scribble down, "I can prove I'm Shinichi!" He ripped the paper from the glue at the top of the notepad and handed the piece to the professor. Then he went to work writing his proof. After a minute of unfortunately sloppy writing, Shinichi was still struggling to get used to writing with his tiny paws, he handed the complete message to Dr. Agasa.

The professor read it aloud. It was a description of where Agasa had gone out to eat that evening, and why Shinichi knew it from the clues on the doctor's person. At the end, Agasa looked convinced. Shinichi stood tall for the first time since he was knocked out and smiled.

"Wait right here."

Shinichi watched the professor scurry into a back room with surprise. "Okay," he said, despite knowing he wouldn't be understood.

Agasa returned with a collar with some sort of metal box attached. "I'll make a new one that's more compact and natural looking later, but this should do the trick for now. Here, let me help you get it on you."

"Ah! Wait! Uh, Agasa, what—?" Shinichi stopped his protests when his voice got picked up by the box and translated into clear, if eerily robotic, normal speech.

"It's a translation collar! I couldn't get that tinny generated voice to sound any better, so I never did much else with this project, but this'll do for now." Agasa explained as he wrapped it around Shinichi's neck. The collar was too big to buckle to a right size, though.

"I'll just hold it," Shinichi offered, taking it in his hands and holding the box to his mouth. "I never knew you made something like this. You should stop wasting your time on jetpacks and whatnot and make more things like this. Then you'd make some actual money."

"Shinichi-kun, you wound me." Agasa seemed to wilt under Shinichi's criticism. "But, what happened to you?"

"Ah... Well," Shinichi started, and explained the whole ordeal.

He was just wrapping up when out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the lights turning on at his house next door. Shinichi whipped around and watched someone enter the house. "Who... I'll be back in a moment. It might be those men in black!" He dropped the translation collar and jumped to the counter by the window.

"Wait, Shinichi-kun!" Agasa called, but the teen detective had leaped out of the window.

Shinichi hit the ground hard, he was still exhausted from the run over, and it showed. He'd have to be careful not to start a fight. He scrambled up the shared wall between his and Agasa's house and peered over it carefully. He barely caught sight of someone moving from the entrance hall of his house to another room, turning on the lights there, too.

"Whoever this is, they aren't being very stealthy. They must be confident." Shinichi pulled himself up and over, creeping along in his own lawn now. He approached a window and jumped to it, aiming himself so he'd barely peek over the sill. He almost had it, but slipped on the damp edge and fell. Shinichi froze. He couldn't hear anything from the person inside. Then he heard their running footsteps. Shinichi cursed softly and ran to the front door, hiding himself in some bushes. Shinichi tensed himself as the door cracked open. The intruder was...

"Ran-kun?" Shinichi whipped his head around to the gate, where Agasa had made an appearance. Then Ran stepped out of the Kudo mansion. Shinichi let himself breathe easy and crept out of the bush.

"Professor Agasa?" Ran asked, surprised as well. She looked towards the side of the building Shinichi had been prowling. "Did you hear a sound? Something like a squeak and a thump?"

"Ah, that was probably my Pikachu! He got out and I've been looking for him, mind if I take a look?" Agasa said with a hearty chuckle. Shinichi stared at the professor from the shadows of the building and tilted his head with confusion. Then he realized, it'd probably be best if Ran didn't find out about all this. At least, not right now. It could make a funny story later.

"That's fine, let me help you!" Ran offered, looking about. Shinichi figured he might as well be found, so he bounded into the open. "Oh! That wasn't hard. He's so cute!" She reached down and picked him up, which, wasn't really part of the plan. Shinichi didn't really know what to do, so he just went limp like a ragdoll. He could safely say this whole Pikachu thing was getting too weird. "What's his name?" Ran asked, not holding him too close, he was still pretty wet and dirty after all.

"Oh! Uhhh..." Agasa stalled.

Shinichi thought about an alias for himself while in his form. A name quickly came to mind. "Conan would be nice, I guess," he recommended, despite knowing he wouldn't be understood.

"Conan? That's a weird name." Ran muttered. Then she stiffened, and so did Shinichi. He locked eyes with her, both wide with surprise. Then she smiled a tight smile. "Dr. Agasa! That's so mean of you!"

"Eh?" The poor doctor asked, utterly confused.

"You should have told me you helped him talk!" Ran held Shinichi up to her eyes and turned him over, searching his body. "What did you do to him to make him talk? And why did you use Shinichi's voice?"

"Ran! Ran it's me! You can understand me?" Shinichi said, trying to look her in the eyes as she twisted him around. She stopped when she found no device.

Ran stared him in the eyes with a stern look. Shinichi realized she was much more intimidating when approximately one fifth her size. Thankfully she turned her attention to Dr. Agasa. "Professor, if you're working with Shinichi to prank me, this is really mean!"

"Oh boy." Shinichi sighed.

* * *

 

The rain had stopped by the time Ran could be convinced. She stared at her hands, folded neatly in her lap. Shinichi could tell she really had no idea what to say.

Shinichi had dried himself off with a towel when they got inside, and while he wasn't clean by any means, he wasn't wet. It would do for now.

"So what now?" Ran asked, finally finding some words.

"I'm hoping the poison will wear off and I can go back to normal. Then I'll continue pursuing those men." Shinichi spoke into the translator for the professor's sake.

"You should consider the possibility that it won't, Shinichi-kun." Agasa was messing around on the computer next to his living room, where Ran and Shinichi were sitting on the couch. Shinichi didn't like Agasa's recommendation, but he couldn't really dispute it. "But it still might!" Agasa said, trying to be encouraging. "We won't know until I do some tests. Come by for a blood test tomorrow. Ran-kun, could you stop by after school, too?"

"'Come by?' Aren't I staying with you?" Shinichi asked, tilting his head.

"I was thinking it'd be a good idea for Ran-kun to take you home, if that's alright." Agasa said, addressing Ran for the last remark.

"I'd have to ask my dad, but why?"

"Well, your father's a detective, so he might hear something about the men in black. No harm in keeping an eye out for them in the meanwhile."

"Good point, Professor!" Shinichi said, nodding.

Ran smiled, but she looked unsure. "I suppose I could try. Dad doesn't really like Pokémon, though."

"If it doesn't work out, I'll just take Shinichi-kun back with me after dropping you off at your home, Ran-kun." Agasa said. He shut down his computer and walked towards the door.

Ran stood up. "Oh, you don't have to drive me, I can walk. It's stopped raining, after all."

"Don't worry about it," Agasa said, laughing. "Shinichi-kun, leave the translator with me, I'll use it to make a better one tomorrow, too."

Shinichi nodded and left the collar on the couch, then hopped to the floor to follow Ran and Agasa to the professor's little car.

The ride was quiet. Shinichi and Ran sat in the back seats. Shinichi's seat belt covered most of his chest and stomach, which wasn't comfortable. At least he wouldn't get thrown around the car due to his light weight. Not that Agasa took turns hard enough to risk that. Good to be prepared for emergencies, though. Shinichi had taken enough risks that night.

"Professor, do you have any idea why I can understand Shinichi without the translator?" Ran asked in the middle of the ride.

"Hmm, well, I don't." Agasa said. "That's why I want you to stop by later tomorrow. I'm going to test your ears and Shinichi-kun's voice. But, well, call me sentimental, but I want to guess it's because of your bond."

The two teenagers blushed, although it was hard to tell on Shinichi's already red cheeks. "Wh-what?" Ran stammered.

"When people and Pokémon grow close, they do amazing things together, and Pokémon are still infinitely mysterious to us. I wouldn't be surprised if Shinichi's desire to be understood caused some sort of miracle just for you."

Shinichi felt himself warm from head to toe with embarrassment. He didn't dare risk looking at Ran's reaction. Why? Because, well, you know. That's why. "I'm sure it's something logical, something like... Like..." He couldn't find any words. No, he couldn't find any ideas either. "We'll see, I guess."

"Should I translate that?" Ran asked. Oh, she wasn't asking Agasa. Shinichi chanced a peek at her expression. She was definitely flushed, but more unsure and embarrassed than anything. That was... A relief? Perhaps. Maybe nothing changed. Of course, Agasa was hiding a little mischievous smile under his bushy moustache.

"If you want?" Shinichi answered Ran, still avoiding her gaze for the most part.

"Shinichi says it's probably something more logical than that," Ran said confidently. Then she lost her confidence and muttered, "Besides, what kind of bond are you talking about?"

"Aren't you two the closest of friends?" Agasa asked, having the audacity to feign confusion. Shinichi was tired of his teasing.

"Oh, I thought, you meant a different kind of bond." Ran turned sheepish, locking her eyes on the window next to her.

"What else would I mean?" Agasa smiled wider.

"That's enough, old man." Shinichi growled, thoroughly bothered.

"Alright, alright," Agasa pacified, "you're right, it probably is something more logical." A moment later, he pulled to the side of the road and stopped. "We're here." The three of them climbed out of the car and made their way across the street to the shared building of a home, a detective office, and a cafe. Shinichi always thought it was strange, but it would serve his new purpose of eavesdropping on Mouri Kogoro for information well. What better excuse is there to hang around a detective's office than to live there?

The scent of beer and cigarette smoke reached Shinichi before he saw their source. A flurry of movement flew down the stairs to the office and crashed face-first on the sidewalk at the group's feet. It was Mouri Ran's father. Suddenly Shinichi realized that maybe he shouldn't be so quick to appreciate living with the Mouris. Especially with a sensitive nose.

Ran and Agasa helped Kogoro up as he rambled excitedly about some case he had been hired for. A kidnapping, from what Shinichi could gather. He mentioned something about men in black, too, then waved over a conveniently nearby taxi. Oh.

"Ran, Men in black!" Shinichi yelled, rushing into the taxi after Kogoro.

"H-hey wait!" Ran said, piling in after. Agasa waved the driver on, so it took off quickly while Kogoro laughed jubilantly, not even noticing the presence of his daughter and the Pikachu. Not at first, anyways. It wasn't until they were on the highway that he noticed. By then it was too late to get off.

Shinichi sighed as father and daughter argued over his head. His desires for a bath and a bed had been edged out by a gripping anxiety that took hold of him the minute he heard who had kidnapped the girl. "Today is going to be a long day."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> This is my first work on AO3, so if anyone knows how to actually tag this thing, I'd love some pointers. Also, uhh, I'm only 250 episodes in on the anime with limited knowledge of the events afterward. So there might be hiccups and inconsistencies with canon. Try not to drop too many spoilers. I really only care about spoilers for individual cases and the movies. Main story spoilers are whatever. Also, I've played like an hour of the Detective Pikachu game. I don't mind spoilers for that game either.
> 
> Mostly a mix of anime canon and manga canon, maybe some movie stuff if I feel like it. As for the Pokemon side, I have a few headcanons I'll be going with, such as animals do exist alongside Pokemon and the people of this world know it's immoral to eat Pokemon, and the Pokemon themselves prefer to eat animals to other Pokemon. Also, all Pokemon world locations will be replaced with their real life inspirations. For example, Heiji is still from Osaka, not Goldenrod City. This also means Alolan Pokemon are called Hawaiian Pokemon. Hawaiian Vulpix, Hawaiian Rattata, etc. ...Now I want Hawaiian sweet rolls...
> 
> Besides for the first few chapters to introduce the concept, this'll mostly be retelling chapters and/or episodes based on how different they'd be due to Shinichi being a Pikachu and living in a world with Pokemon in general, and Ran knowing where and who he is. If nothing would change in the case, or if the case would be impossible to retell, it won't be written about. If I don't feel like writing about a case, I won't write a Pikachu AU version either. If all I want to do is write about how these changes affect the major story beats, that's what will be written. We're playing fast and loose with canon and chronology. I won't be writing my version of the cases in order. I'll be writing these based on notes I take while reading the manga, rewatching episodes with friends, etc. Seeing what'll be fun to retell. You know, if I want to. As is the nature of the source material, it'll forever be ongoing.
> 
> I'll be writing these chapters assuming you're already familiar with the cases, so I'll include the episode, volume, and chapter numbers when I cover a case. I also assume you have a basic knowledge of Pokemon, but if you don't know them all, just Googling a name or term here and there will work.
> 
> Also, in case you're confused, on July 19th 2019, I renamed this fic from "Conan the Pikachu, a Detective" to "Conan, Pikachu Investigator", because the old title was garbage I barfed out when I was too excited to post the first chapter to wait for a good title to come to mind.
> 
> Anyways, sorry for the long author's note, thanks again for reading!


	2. Company President's Daughter Case

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shinichi has a lead on the men in black who poisoned him already and he jumps into action after it, leaving everyone in the dust. His hastiness could be his own undoing, though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to add some art for each chapter! All of it will be done by myself unless specified otherwise, so please go back to the first chapter and take a peek. Although if you're reading this fic after I put the image in, you already know! Don't worry, it's always going to be just one short image right at the top and not necessary for understanding the story. They happen to be rather wide images, though, so let me know if I need to change the pixel width to something more comfortable.
> 
> Unfortunately I don't have quite the time and energy to do art for every chapter, so forgive me!

Company President's Daughter Case - Episode 2 / Volume 1: File 3-5 (003-005)

Kudo Shinichi sat on Mouri Ran's shoulder, looking down at her neat handwriting detailing the case. He whispered tips on what to encourage Mouri Kogoro to ask while Ran wrote down what the witnesses to the kidnapping had to say. The main witness was the butler, Asao, who saw the kidnapper steal her up a tree near the wall of the courtyard. The kidnapper did it without help from any Pokémon. To scale a tree with the ten-year-old Tani Akiko in tow, it would be impressive if it were true.

Things were already fishy before that, though. To chose to steal the girl away when she was home instead of outside, on her way home from school perhaps, would be convoluted. The odd escape route only emphasised that fact. The demand was odd, too. To shut down production for a month would cripple the company, but what would the criminal gain from that? Could it be a revenge plot? If so, it'd be more damaging to just kill the girl.

"First they kidnap my daughter, then they want money..." Akiko's father ranted. Ah, good. That meant there was a good chance the girl was still alive. Shinichi broke from his thoughts when he noticed Asao trying to deny that asking for money was even part of the deal. That was unexpected. But that wasn't the end of it, the kidnapper suddenly seemed much more professional. The Pikachu didn't understand at all what was happening. To make such mistakes early on, and now go so far as to ask for second-hand bills and use a voice changer?

Shinichi dropped from Ran's shoulders and crept around the yard, looking for any clues on his own. He tried picking out the scents of the regulars of the Tani household, but he didn't know them nearly well enough to tell for certain if there were any foreign smells, and he couldn't find the detangling spray-old blood scent from the men in black he knew either.

He jumped nearly five feet in the air when vicious barking filled his ears and sent shock waves through his whole body. A Houndoom was at the end of his tether, snapping his jaws at thin air.

"Ran! Control that Pokémon!" Kogoro yelled. She apologized as Shinichi scrambled back from the brink of safety to Ran's side.

Wait.

Shinichi had two things on his mind, he'd get to the weirder thought second. First, the Houndoom was right underneath the tree that the culprit so oddly used as his escape route. This dog was attentive enough to bark its head off at a little Pikachu, surely it would have noticed the criminal, but everyone heard only the girl's scream and Asao's shouts for help.

"Jumbo, calm down," Tani commanded, then turned back to discussing the kidnapping with detective Mouri.

"Yes, master." There it was. The Houndoom spoke in the same way Shinichi heard himself, the regular Pokémon sounds he was used to under perfectly coherent speech. He had to try.

"Excuse me—" Shinichi started, edging closer to Jumbo.

"Shut up. You're here making everyone distressed. Stop it." Jumbo growled, trying to keep his voice down so his master wouldn't silence him again.

"I, uh, no, we're here to help." Shinichi stuttered, still trying to wrap his head around talking to a Pokémon. "I'm a detective, the young girl of this house was kidnapped, right? I'll find her."

Jumbo's jaw dropped. "She was kidnapped?"

"You don't know? But Asao-san said the kidnapper climbed this tree with her to escape." Shinichi pointed to the butler.

Jumbo stared slack jawed. "No, that can't be. I've been here all evening, watching her."

"What really happened here?" Shinichi asked in a low voice.

"That one," Jumbo pointed his nose at Asao, "Master's servant and Akiko were talking, she was crying, but I could tell it wasn't he who upset her. Master doesn't spend much time with her, it makes her sad." He was calm and trusting now, giving Shinichi his full attention. "They seemed to agree on something and they left the house. After a bit, Asao came back and used a device to make it sound like Akiko was screaming. I didn't see her anywhere, so I assumed she wasn't actually in danger. Then the other servants came here and—" Jumbo's eyes went wide and he snorted smoke with a new rage. "Asao must have taken her. I never should have trusted him."

"A-ah! Don't be so hasty!" Shinichi said, jumping between the angry dog and Asao, even though Jumbo was still well tethered. "We need him alive so he can tell us where she is!" Jumbo nodded and stayed put. He seemed placated enough to not want to rip the old man's face off right that instant.

"When she's safe, I'm going to hurt him myself," Jumbo swore. Shinichi silently noted that he needed to be careful with how much this dog knew. He went back to Ran.

"Were you talking to the Houndoom?" Ran crouched down to talk to him in a whisper.

"Uh, yeah. That's something I can do now, apparently. But Ran, I need you to—" Shinichi didn't have time to finish, one of the maids had handed the phone to Tani.

"Have you prepared the three million yen yet?" A robotic and echoed voice sounded through the phone on speaker mode. Shinichi stiffened, and so did Asao. Jumbo, paying plenty of attention now, tilted his head in confusion, looking back and forth between the phone and the butler. Shinichi listened with helpless tension as Mouri and Tani stumbled through the conversation with the kidnapper, trying to glean information from him. If only he could share what he knew.

"Papa! I'm in a school warehouse!" Akiko's distorted voice called from the phone. "I'm at some school where I can see a big chimney out the window!"

That was all he needed.

"Jumbo!" Shinichi ran past the dog and untethered him. "Let's find the real kidnapper." Jumbo nodded as Shinichi leaped to the Houndoom's back and they both raced away from the Tani house.

"Shin—Conan!" Ran stumbled on her correction in the middle of yelling, but she was too slow to follow.

* * *

Shinichi and Jumbo had visited the each chimney the Pikachu knew of, trying to find a warehouse they could see them from. The dog was getting impatient and Shinichi knew they didn't have much time left. His mental map of the Tokyo area was sure, and the moon was full enough to see the outlines of the chimneys. Could the kidnapper have moved her that quickly and stealthily?

"Shinichi!" He looked up to see Ran had just found them. She was out of breath and Shinichi couldn't tell if her face was red from the activity or if she was angry at him for running off. Ah, yes, considering recent events, it was no surprise she'd be mad and worried.

"Sorry Ran." Shinichi hoped an apology could do for now. He had to find the girl.

"Sorry later! You've missed it!"

"Huh?" Shinichi's mind blanked. What did he miss?

"That building!" Ran yelled, then took off. Jumbo followed with an acceleration that almost sent Shinichi flying off. While running, Ran pointed at a tall, thin building in the distance. They came to narrower side of it, so it looked like a black pillar against the sky. Ah- _ha!_

"I see! Turn right here!" Shinichi instructed Jumbo. He knew exactly which school Akiko was being held at now. Ran followed them. Of course, the building looked like a chimney from this angle, especially since there wasn't any windows on that side of it.

They slowed as they approached the school. A faint light could be seen from the inside of the warehouse. That was good enough for Shinichi, they didn't have time to double check. A phone booth conveniently stood nearby. "Ran, call the Tani house and the police. I'll go make sure she's safe while we wait." The three of them nodded to each other and split up.

Jumbo padded quietly when they got close. Shinichi got down and crept to a window to peer inside. He saw a shadowy figure using the phone. A girl in pigtails assumed to be Tani Akiko was silenced with tape and tied, sitting on the floor. The door was left slightly ajar, so Shinichi crept over to listen in, Jumbo on his heels, thankfully not behaving rashly. The culprit was just finishing a conversation with the girl's father. He hung up and Shinichi peeked inside to see him turn towards Akiko.

"Sorry, but you've seen my face, so I'll have to kill you." No! Jumbo didn't like that either, so he ran inside, barking like a mad 'mon, and tackled the culprit to the floor. The knife flew from his hand and landed a safe distance away from everyone. Shinichi smiled and tasked himself with helping Akiko. He quickly untied the ropes keeping her bound and let her tear the tape from her own mouth. With her mobile, Shinichi checked on Jumbo and the culprit. The kidnapper's hair was lightly singed and Jumbo was being overprotective of his stomach. He'd been kicked, likely.

"Azumarill!" The culprit grabbed a Pokéball from his belt and tossed it, releasing the Water-Fairy rabbit. Crap. Shinichi glanced at Akiko, waiting for her to give Jumbo an order, she was ten years old after all, but she seemed paralysed with fear. "Aqua Tail!" The culprit commanded.

The Azumarill dove at Jumbo with a summersault tail-attack, but Jumbo keeled to the side, barely dodging. Understanding that he wasn't going to be getting orders from Akiko, he used Fire Blast, which the Azumarill easily brushed off, even though it was a direct hit.

"Don't you have anything good against it?" Shinichi asked Jumbo, standing protectively between the fight and Akiko.

Jumbo tilted his head, trying to focus on the battle and talking at the same time. "I don't know, what's good?"

"Grass?" Shinichi suggested, not really knowing off the top of his head what a Houndoom was capable of learning. He had always sort of understood why battling was a partnership, but now he truly knew why. Thinking in the heat of battle was terribly inefficient.

"I have Solar Beam!" Jumbo barked, then took a Play Rough punch to the face and crashed into a stack of notebooks.

"That'll take too long!" Shinichi yelled. Especially at this time of night and indoors. Jumbo wouldn't be able to use sun, moon, or star light from here. "What else do you have?"

"Fire Blast," Jumbo got up and leaped to higher ground, some stacked boxes, as the Azumarill bore down on him, "Dark Pulse, and Sludge—" Jumbo interrupted himself with a howl of pain as an Aqua Tail grazed him.

Sludge what? Sludge Bomb? Poison would be effective! "Use Sludge Bomb!" But Shinichi was too late, the Azumarill had come down with a Brick Break directly on Jumbo's head, knocking him out cold. "No..." Shinichi looked to the exit, but the culprit had moved to guard it. There was no way out.

"Alright, it's your turn now." The Azumarill seemed to tower over Shinichi, despite only being about 40 centimeters taller. Akiko broke out into fresh tears behind him. "Why don't you stop playing trainer and fight me instead, smart guy?" Shinichi bristled at the taunt, but realized with a sinking feeling that _he didn't know how._ One good electric attack might be able to take it out, but how? _How?_

The Azumarill whipped around, its Aqua Tail throwing Shinichi across the warehouse faster than he could process it. Mostly due to the pain, Shinichi knew logically Azumarill weren't fast Pokémon. How was it so strong? Shinichi had to struggle to say conscious. Oh... What... What level was he? Probably not a very high one. Lights flickered in his vision. He pulled himself upright anyways. The world spun with a ferocious speed. All Shinichi could hear was Akiko's crying. A small sound of metal scraping on flooring told him the culprit had retrieved his knife. Shinichi forced his body to stand. He had to protect her.

"HYYAH!" A passionate yell cut through the darkness clouding Shinichi's vision and he glanced up in time to see Ran finishing up a flurry of kicks, knocking the culprit into a stack of boxes. He fell on top of his Azumarill on the way down. Ran took the Azumarill's Pokéball off the man's belt and forcibly returned the rabbit Pokémon. She pocketed it and toppled another stack of boxes onto the criminal. Shinichi had to watch prone on the floor. He smiled as Ran checked on Akiko, who was crying again, but this time with joy. She didn't waste any time after that, she rushed to his side. Shinichi hissed in pain as Ran picked him up and cradled him. He heard her voice, she was trying to talk to him, but everything was in a fog. He couldn't pick out details. When he heard sirens, those were distinct enough, Shinichi finally allowed himself to fall unconscious.

* * *

Shinichi groggily zoned out into the unfamiliar ceiling. This was far from the first time he'd woken up not in his own bed, that didn't startle him much. What dumb thing did he do to wake up, hmm, in some kind of hospital? The air smelled sterile, like powerful cleaners. His body felt heavy. He wasn't under any sort of thick blanket, and he didn't feel any pain. His mind felt clear enough for it to not be drugs.

"Ah, you're awake." Shinichi frowned at the familiar, yet unfamiliar voice that broke him back into reality. He turned his head to see a Lucario sitting near his small bed. It wore a police vest with a Lucarionite carefully studded to it. "Tell me, would you happen to be Kudou Shinichi?" It asked.

"Yeah." Shinichi confirmed it without thinking. He really should have thought. He sat up, eyes wide. "I mean—"

"I suspected as much. Your aura is very distinct." Shinichi remembered who this Lucario was now. He was named Lucian. Inspector Megure Juzo had a few specially trained Pokémon to make use of as part of the homicide division. Most members of Megure's division had Pokémon of their own that they used on the job, but it didn't hurt to have extra help for security reasons. These spare Pokémon could be used by anyone, in case their normal partners happened to be incapacitated for some reason. Lucian was one of these spare Pokémon, and typically the one assigned to Shinichi to use while helping with cases. No wonder he recognized him, despite the teen's transformation.

"Can you keep my identity a secret?" Shinichi pleaded Lucian, who too quickly agreed for Shinichi's liking. "No, you don't understand. Even if you think revealing my identity is vital, please don't tell."

Lucian thought a moment, then nodded again. "I won't ask your reasons, I get the feeling I am intruding already, but if it is so serious a situation, I will remain quiet and trust you."

"Thank you, Lucian." Shinichi sighed with relief. He took another good look at where he was. It was definitely some sort of hospital setting. He was on a small, Pikachu-sized bed with many other empty beds of the same size lined against the walls. Lucian was sitting in the chair closest to his bed. A chair like it accompanied every bed. "Where am I?"

"The Beika section Pokémon Center." That figured. "I heard you passed out just before we arrived at the Futatsubashi Middle School warehouse," Lucian continued. "Would you like to know what happened after that?"

Shinichi nodded eagerly.

While Shinichi and Ran had taken Jumbo to find Akiko, Tani and Mouri had stayed behind and spoke longer with the kidnapper. Eventually Mouri noticed that Jumbo would have barked if any stranger had gone near the tree. They deduced that Asao had kidnapped Akiko, but the truth was Asao had only set up a fake kidnapping. That scheme was done at Akiko's request. She had wished for her father's attention and hoped shutting down his production by force would mean he would have time for her.

The real kidnapper, the man Ran and Shinichi fought, had used his cute Azumarill to encourage Akiko to leave the hotel Asao had left her at. He was the one who asked for money. Just as Jumbo witnessed, there was no man in black at the Tani house.

After the fight, the police arrived and arrested the kidnapper and his Azumarill. Ran made sure Shinichi got to the Pokémon Center, Jumbo too, and went to give her statement to the police. Of course, Mouri Kogoro took credit for finding the girl, as Ran was preoccupied. Jumbo had already recovered fully and gone home with the Tani family.

"You are resting here longer because you took a hit from that Azumarill, who was approximately thirty levels higher than yourself," Lucian said, wrapping up his recap. "Also, if your body feels heavy, that is normal for Pokémon who experience Pokémon Center treatment for the first time. The healing is instantaneous and complete, so it takes some getting used to."

Shinichi did feel unusually better. He was definitely grateful he didn't have to be sore for the next few days. "Thanks Lucian."

"You are welcome." The Lucario stood up. "If you need anything from me in the future, do not hesitate to call upon me." He paused before leaving. "Do you plan on returning to human form?"

"Of course!" Shinichi declared. He couldn't imagine staying a Pokémon for the rest of his life.

Lucian nodded. "Good. I wish you luck." Then he turned and left.

Shinichi sat in silence for a few minutes, contemplating recent events. It was almost too much to process. He seemed to only be able to focus on his mistakes. He should have been more careful. He should have learned to use his abilities sooner. He should have taken Ran with him to the warehouse... He buried himself in thoughts like those. Found himself going back to one big mistake. He didn't have a Pokémon with him at the time he was poisoned. If he'd had even a little help, he wouldn't be in this situation.

Shinichi looked at the door Lucian taken as his exit. Megure had noticed how Lucian favored Shinichi over the time he worked on cases. Megure had offered Shinichi ownership of the Lucario. He should have taken that offer. His safety was more important than his sentiments. He was sure Culprit would agree if he could.

The door cracked open and Ran entered the room. "Shinichi? Are you okay?" Her gaze was gentle as she approached. She went to sit in the same chair Lucian had been waiting in, but Shinichi jumped onto the chair before she could.

"I'm fine! I'm just ready to go home."

"Right, me too." Ran nodded sympathetically. "I talked to dad and he said it's fine for you to stay with us, so don't worry about needing to go back to the Professor's."

"Really? That's a surprise," Shinichi said, dropping to the floor and taking the lead out of the room.

"He said you showed up right as he got a case, thus you must be good luck."

Shinichi laughed dryly at Ran's response. Even luck couldn't bring success to that man.

"Hold on, I have something to show you. I stopped by a Pokémon store and bought these." Ran sat down in a chair in the lobby of the Pokémon Center and took two items out of her purse. A Pokéball and a red bowtie accessory.

"Oh." Shinichi didn't know what else to say. He should have anticipated this. It wouldn't be safe for him to be on his own around humans if there was risk of him getting captured, but he hadn't really thought about it before. He suddenly wished he had asked Lucian what it was like to be in a Pokéball. That bowtie was completely uncalled for, though. Or, well, hm. Shinichi technically was naked. Maybe he would be more comfortable with something to wear?

"You like red, right?" She held up the bowtie and brought her voice down so she wouldn't be overheard. "I was thinking maybe Dr. Agasa could attach the translator to this." Ah, Shinichi nodded in understanding. "Now don't break this, I only bought the one." Ran pressed the button of the Pokéball onto Shinichi's forehead.

He braced himself and felt a quick flash of uncomfortable warmth flood his body. His vision went dim, red, and then nothing. So that's what it felt like to be turned into energy. He couldn't see, true, but he had a different sense of perception. Something he couldn't begin to describe. His immediate surroundings felt snug and mechanical, but he could also feel around outside of the boundaries of the ball. He could "feel" Ran holding his Pokéball. He could "hear" the snoring of the trainer who had fallen asleep in the lobby. It all felt like a dream. Like it wasn't really real. He felt the whole Pokéball shudder as it confirmed his capture. Then Ran opened the Pokéball.

Another flash of warmth left him as he reappeared in the material realm.

"How was it?" Ran asked curiously.

"Weird," and Shinichi felt that summed it up accurately enough for now. He could tell she was disappointed with that answer, though. "I'll explain it some other time." She nodded understandingly and helped him climb up to his perch on her shoulder.

Mouri Kogoro was waiting outside the center, leaning impatiently against a taxi. The ride to the Mouri house and office was uneventful. For a bed, Shinichi grabbed one of the seat cushions at the lower table and dragged it to the corner of the main room. Ran tried to apologize for not having a spare room for him, but he was fine. She compensated him with a blanket, huge for his current size, but he could still use a corner.

As Shinichi drifted off to sleep he wondered just what he was going to do. His immediate plans would be helping Dr. Agasa investigate the poison's effects and learning how to use his new Pokémon abilities, with a long-term goal in finding the men in black. There was also the question of when the poison would wear off. Not if, when. He was determined to think about is as a "when" situation. In fact, he could wake up human again tomorrow. As much as that thought encouraged him, it wouldn't be easy. If they found out he survived, something easier to confirm if he became human again, they would want to make sure he was silenced. That would be dangerous for everyone involved.

Shinichi slept fitfully, kept up by his thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to mention this last time, but huge thanks to my beta reader! She definitely made this chapter a lot better.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	3. Idol Locked Room Murder Case

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shinichi and Ran start working as a team to deduce the killer of a body found in the apartment of pop idol and actress, Okino Yoko.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No art today, sorry! Maybe next time!

Three days out and still no hint at changing back. From Agasa's tests, the Pikachu form seemed to be somewhat permanent. When Shinichi had received that news he, well, to say he was devastated would be an understatement. It didn't help that Ran's father hadn't even been hired for another job, so he didn't have any information on the huge crime syndicate either. All to say, when Ran dragged him to the store to pick out some lasting Pokémon supplies for him, he wasn't really in the mood.

"This bed, or this bed?" Ran tried to get his input yet again. She was holding two small Pokémon beds of two different styles and colors. He shrugged and pointed at one of them with his tail without really caring either way. Ran frowned and said quietly, "Shinichi, I'm trying to distract you."

"Forgive me, but it's not really working."

"Can you at least try them out and tell me which is more comfortable?" She set the beds back on the shelf and rolled the cart closer. Shinichi sighed and obliged.

Thus went most of their shopping trip. Shinichi didn't feel too bad about being totally uninterested in the trip, after all, they had used his card for the items. Which was probably pretty reckless, but the card was more attached to his parents than him, so it was probably fine.

"What're we taking care of that Pikachu for again?" Mouri Kogorou asked when the two of them returned from the store.

"Professor Agasa asked us to. You know, the inventor who lives next to the Kudos?" Ran reminded her father.

He took one look at the shopping bags and scowled. "I hope it was him who paid for all that."

"I thought he was good luck? Won't that pay for itself?" Ran tried to reason.

"Luck doesn't cost _that_ much."

Shinichi snorted. This just in, the price of luck has been determined by incompetent detective Mouri Kogorou, it's less than what it costs to care for one Pikachu.

"Did we pay for it or not?" Kogorou asked.

"No, we didn't." Ran found a way to tell the truth without revealing who actually paid.

"Good." Then he shrugged and sat back down in front of the TV on his desk, lighting another cigarette. Yuck.

"Dad! Don't smoke around Conan, his nose is sensitive. They're bad for you anyways."

Kogorou tried to argue, either he could still smoke freely or he'd kick the Pikachu out, but Ran managed to convince him to make a compromise. He needed to smoke out the window, was all. It was still warm outside, so he didn't complain too much, but come winter this battle would have to be fought again, Shinichi knew. Oh well.

Ran got to work setting up Shinichi's new things. She had also bought curtains, the kind much wider than they were long, for some reason. As she busied herself around the house, Shinichi settled down on one of the couches in the office for a nap. He really needed to sleep off his bad mood.

When he woke he found Ran excitedly poking him. Rude. "Come see what I set up for you!" She pretty much danced back to the kitchen, so Shinichi followed, extremely curious.

"Ta-da!" She pointed to the top of the cupboards. The new curtains were hanging from the ceiling, hiding the empty space between it and the tops of the cupboards. "I made a little space for you to hang out up there. Give it a look!"

"Okay," Shinichi muttered, starting to get excited too. Her enthusiasm was infectious. He leaped to the countertop, then the fridge, and finally he slipped through where the curtain had been left parted for him. "Oh!"

It was a little reading nook. Behind the heavy curtains sat a stack of books, mystery novels Shinichi had gifted to Ran through the ages, a small desk lamp, a pillow, and small lap blanket. He poked his head back out.

"I thought you'd want a place to read in privacy, after all, it'd be weird to Dad if he saw you reading," Ran whispered, standing on her toes next to the fridge.

"Ran, I'm sorry I've been such a pill today. And thank you."

"It's okay, I'm glad you like it." Ran smiled at him. Shinichi was extremely grateful to have such a good friend in Ran, and especially grateful that she could understand him.

Their moment was interrupted by the doorbell.

"Who's at the door this late at night?!" Shinichi heard Kogorou yell, then he switched to muttering. "Don't they know it's six o'clock? Yoko-chan's show is on." Well, good to know the lazy detective's "quiet" voice was loud enough for Shinichi to hear from his reading nook. That'd make eavesdropping on him for information easier.

"I better make dinner," Ran said, noticing the time herself.

Then for some reason Kogorou yelled the full name of his favorite actress, Okino Yoko. Ran and Shinichi peeked out of the kitchen just in time to see Kogorou rush up the stairs into the apartment section of the building, leaving a startled and confused pop idol in their doorway, her manager behind her just as shocked.

"Um, sorry about that, please come in! My father will be with you in a moment, I guess?" Ran tried to smooth things over. "Can I get you some tea?"

"Ah, yes, thank you." Yoko could hardly get the words out before Ran's dad reentered the office, sharply dressed in his best suit. Not just sharply dressed, Shinichi realized. He somehow smelled clean? Did he take a shower that quickly? He had also shaved. If only he put this much passion into detective work, Shinichi lamented.

After Ran got tea made, Yoko and her manager began describing their trouble. A stalker, no surprise there. However, the case was unusual in other ways. It wasn't at all similar to an obsessive fan, it was more threatening than that. Moving furniture, mailed photos taken secretly, silent phone calls, the culprit even chased her through the streets the night before. No, definitely too weird for a fan. Someone was actively trying to terrify her.

Finally, the manager, Yamagishi Eiichi, asked Kogorou keep the investigation a secret. Shinichi supposed he could see the sense in that, Yoko was beloved, someone terrifying her this badly would cause panic among her fans. No wonder they went to a more obscure detective like Mouri, anyone bigger may leak the situation to the press.

After an autograph, Mouri Kogorou agreed to keep the situation quiet and accepted the case.

"I won't let anyone lay a finger on you!" Kogorou promised, ironically laying his hand on her shoulder. "Shall I take a look at your house, Yoko-chan?" He recommended, ushering her out the office door. Shinichi wasn't exactly sure what he was hoping to find there, maybe fingerprints on the furniture? But that was a long-shot. He'd be looking for a match forever, after all, anyone in Tokyo could be the stalker. Oh, of course, Shinichi forgot that Kogorou wasn't thinking like a detective right now, but as a fan who had a chance to spend time with his favorite celebrity. Well, looks like he'd have to take over.

"Ran, let's go with him."

"Oh!" Ran jolted alert, nodding. "Dad, wait! Can we come with? Um, can I, I mean?"

"It'd look less suspicious if a family is visiting Yoko, not just a detective," Shinichi recommended an excuse to Ran. She quickly repeated Shinichi's words and tacked them on to her request.

"Ah, that would be a good idea," Yamagishi approved.

"Alright then, but don't get in the way of the investigation." With Kogorou's approval, the whole group left the office and grabbed a taxi to the idol's apartment building.

Upon arrival, Yoko opened the door to her apartment and stood stock still, a horror-struck look on her face. Something was terribly wrong. Shinichi bounded to her side, Kogorou following quickly as well. In the middle of her empty main room laid a large, young man with dark hair. In his back a large kitchen knife stuck out, the cause of a large bloodstain.

Yoko and Ran screamed. The manager begged to cover this up, but thankfully Kogorou had enough of a spine to tell him this was murder, the police needed to be notified. Ran rushed off to call.

* * *

Shinichi's suspicions fell upon the manager. He had just stolen something out of the victim's hand after "accidentally" falling on the body. Thankfully, something fluttered out of his pocket. Shinichi crept over to take a look. A hair. Long and brown. Shinichi glanced up at Yoko, the only one with similar hair. It seemed to match, but without inspecting the skin tag he couldn't be sure. He opened his mouth to alert Inspector Megure to his discovery, but paused when he remembered, right, he couldn't. Well, that meant... Oh. Ran wasn't looking so good.

Shinichi approached his best friend. "Ran, are you alright?" She crouched down to address him secretly.

"Not at all." Oh, Shinichi supposed it was a bit obvious. She continued, "I'm not anywhere near as used to bodies as you are, Shinichi."

"I don't like seeing people dead either, Ran." He had to admit he was feeling a bit defensive, but he shoved that aside, right now he needed her cooperation. "Listen, Ran. The translator works, and it's true I'm wearing it right now, but it still doesn't sound like a normal human voice."

"It's still robotic?"

"Yeah, if I want to communicate what I know to the police—"

"You'll need my help," Ran finished his sentence. She nodded and took a deep breath. "Okay, what do you need me to say?"

"Thank you, Ran."

"It's fine, it needs to be done." She looked at Yoko, the poor actress seemed so scared. Shinichi realized her empathy towards the young actress was her motivation.

Shinichi laid out his observations: the manager's interference with hair of course, but also the heat of the room, the water stains on the floor, the odd reactions Yoko and Yamagishi had to the identity of the body, the hair clutched by the victim, and the status of the case as a locked room.

"What I mainly need you to find out is if there's..." He trailed off into whispers.

Ran nodded and let Shinichi sit on her shoulder while she asked Yoko, "Is there a spare key?"

"Eh? Yes, I have one, and so does Yamagishi, but he lost his almost a week ago at the studio."

"Ah-ha! Or so he's made you think!" Kogorou interjected.

"What?!" Yamagishi yelled. Oh boy.

"Keep your dad from sending that manager to jail, I'm going to look for more clues." Shinichi dropped to the floor.

"Wha? Wait! How?" Ran hissed, but it was too late. Thankfully Megure was good at keeping the accusation-happy detective on a leash. It helped that Yoko vouched for Yamagishi.

As Shinichi searched the room, Lucian the Lucario approached him.

"Hello, Kudou-ah, forgive me, what is this identity's name?" the police Pokémon asked a bit sheepishly.

"Conan, thank you, Lucian." Shinichi couldn't blame the Lucario that much for using the wrong name, after all, he didn't think any of the other Pokémon on the police team overheard Lucian's gentle, polite voice.

"Of course. Are you staying with the Mouri's now?"

Shinichi nodded. "I'm surprised you know who they are." He was sure the time Kogorou worked as a police detective was long before Lucian was trained and added to the division.

"Hm, I suppose you are not used to how Pokémon learn information. I pick up most things by simply being in the background and listening in."

Shinichi's ears drooped. "I have a feeling I'll be doing a lot more of that."

"Not necessarily, after all, you can still read, I assume."

Hm, that brought up a good question. "Lucian, do you know of any Pokémon that can read?"

He considered Shinichi's question carefully. "Not personally. I have heard of Pokémon who can. It is a rumor that only highly intelligent Pokémon, like Alakazam, can learn how. It is simply easier to ensure the teaching is working when training a Pokémon that can speak telepathically with humans. Hypothetically, with enough patience, any Pokémon could learn to read and write."

That's good to know, Shinichi reasoned. But, well, he was getting distracted.

Seeming to read his mind, Lucian said, "Have you noticed any clues I could help you point out to the police?"

"Thanks, but I have Ran helping me with communication, and I think it'd be kind of hard to us to point out things like the water stains."

"Helping you?"

"Ah, uh, she can understand me, somehow. I'm not sure why."

"Oh, now that you mention that, that makes some sense." Shinichi tilted his head to one side in confusion, so Lucian continued, "I had been picking up on an unusual phenomenon in your auras. Perhaps that is the cause."

Shinichi shifted uncomfortably. "Lucian, how many humans and Pokémon can recognize aura like you?"

Lucian smiled comfortingly, he seemed to pick up what Shinichi was getting at. "To those who sense aura, they are as individual as fingerprints, no matter what body. You will only be recognized if an aura reader knows you well enough to note your aura is similar. It is similar to recognizing faces, so please do not worry too much." Shinichi gave a small sigh of relief. "To answer your question, those who can sense aura are limited to mainly the Lucario line, but Pokémon such as Legendaries and Mythicals may be able. There are some humans who have the potential to build an ability to read aura, but they are rarely as skilled as Pokémon."

"That makes me feel a lot better." Shinichi knew the odds on encountering a Pokémon of legend or myth was low, so all he had to do was avoid the few celebrities who boasted their power to read aura. Easy. He just had to hope the men in black didn't have that capability. A paranoid thought at the back of his mind screamed that they must, but he silenced that. He didn't have the time or energy to make precautions for such a low chance.

Well, maybe he'd make a few precautions. He resolved to look up resources on aura later.

"I am glad I could help." Sensing the conversation had ended, Lucian turned to walk away, but stopped. "Might I suggest you check under the couch?"

"Hm? Oh, alright. Thanks."

Ah, there's something strange. Precisely where Lucian had suggested was an earring. After alerting Ran, she pretended to discover it. That led to Yoko identifying it as belonging to an Ikezawa Yuuko, another idol in the industry. When Yamagishi told the police she had a grudge against Yoko for taking a desired acting role, that was all Kogorou needed to accuse Ikezawa of stealing the key and doing the deed.

Shinichi could imagine any of them as the killer. The manager was most suspicious to him, but they'd see what Ikezawa had to say, and if Yoko would confess what she knew about the victim or not. She had seemed to recognize him earlier.

* * *

After vehemently denying any sort of involvement, Ikezawa Yuuko stomped off to use the restroom. It was at that moment Shinichi noticed two things.

"Ran, they look exactly the same from behind, Yoko-san and Yuuko-san."

"Hm? I suppose they do. Even their names are similar," Ran muttered, catching a glimpse of the less popular actress when she closed the door behind her. "Do you think that maybe the witness downstairs mistook Yoko-san for her?"

"It's a possibility, but he might also be right. She's been in here before, she knew where the toilet was without asking, despite just saying this was her first time to the apartment."

"Eh? Then has she been here or not?" Ran asked too loud for a moment, attracting the attention of some of the police, but thankfully not anything more than a glance.

"Careful!" Shinichi scolded. "Knowing where the bathroom is isn't proof enough. It's a small apartment, and it was the first door in the hall. Not that hard to find by trial and error. Even paired with the earring, it's not conclusive."

"So what do we do?" Ran brought her voice back to a whisper.

"When they check her alibi, hopefully we'll get enough clues to tell."

"Right."

And so they watched and listened as Megure tried to pull information from her. She refused to be very cooperative, accusing Yoko of the crime at every chance she could, even accusing her of stealing and planting the earring. Then Yuuko grabbed a figurine of the Statue of Liberty and pressed a button on the head to activate the lighter in the statue's torch.

Huh.

"Ran, ask her how she knew that was a lighter."

Ran's face lit up with realization and obliged. Megure and Kogorou were on the actress in an instant, demanding an explanation.

"I have one at home!" Yuuko tried to protest.

"But you knew where the bathroom was without asking earlier, too," Ran challenged. Shinichi couldn't help smiling. Ran was catching on to playing the role of detective.

"You have definitely been here! You're the killer, Ikezawa Yuuko!" Ran's father accused, not on baseless grounds this time. "You killed to cause a scandal for Yoko-san!"

"I only fought back when he attacked me! I didn't kill him!" Yuuko went on to confess she had been in the apartment, and she had stolen Yamagishi's key, too. She had been behind the stalking and scare tactics, and admitted to searching through Yoko's things for material to ruin her with. All out of anger for being constantly outshone by Yoko.

Then, Yuuko testified to when the victim came to the apartment that afternoon and scared her. He grabbed her and they struggled on the floor, which was why her earring was lost under the couch. Yuuko got away and left the apartment, but he was very much alive at that point.

Megure and Kogorou doubted her, but before they had a chance to investigate further, news came that the victim had finally been identified.

Fujie Akiyoshi, 22 years old, went to Kounan High School, worked at Kakubeni corporation, but recently left.

Well, as much as it pained Shinichi to admit it, Kogorou's creepy fanboy-ish tendencies turned out to be useful, since he knew right off the bat that Yoko and the victim went to the same high school, a possible connection. Yoko came forward with the truth right then and there, she confessed she had been dating the victim before she got involved in the idol industry. Of course, that was back in high school, and according to Yoko, she was the one who had been dumped. But as of recently, Fujie kept visiting Yoko after she had become an idol, asking to get back together. Yoko moved to this current apartment to get away from him.

When Yoko finished her confession, she begged Megure to discover the killer. He seemed too stunned to do anything but agree.

"Shinichi," Ran whispered to the Pikachu on her shoulder.

"Hm?" Shinichi motioned for Ran to move away from the others so they could talk easier.

"Do you think Yuuko-san is lying?" Ran asked in a hushed tone.

"I think she's telling the truth," Shinichi responded. "If she wanted to lie, she would have said she dropped the earring during some other visit, not today."

Ran hesitated, then whispered, "But Shinichi, if she has Yamagishi-san's key, that means either she or Yoko-san did it, and that would leave Yoko-san. Is she lying?"

Shinichi bit his lip. "No, I don't think she's lying either. Again, it would have been better for her to lie and say she hadn't seen Fujie-san since high school."

"But, the key!" Ran almost raised her voice too loud. "I-I mean, the only thing I can think of is if Yamagishi-san made a copy of the key for his own use."

"That's a possibility, but we'd have to prove that." Shinichi thought. There was Yamagishi's suspicious behavior, grabbing the hair from the victim's clutches, but—

Shinichi's train of thought stopped in its tracks. Why did Fujie have the hair? If it was Yuuko's, obtained in the scuffle, he would have dropped it soon. But he didn't? But if Yamagishi—

"Shinichi." Ran poked him in the cheek. Oops, Shinichi felt himself shock her, about the level of a static electricity shock, but still. Also, he had been ignoring her. Oops again.

"Yeah?"

"You're thinking. Tell me. I need to know, after all."

Shinichi flushed hot with frustration with himself. He was going to have to get used to this. "Right right, so I was thinking what Yamagishi-san would have to do to be the one. I told you about the hair, right?" Ran nodded. "It's impossible for him, since he would have taken the hair from Fujie-san back when he killed him, and then made himself an alibi, but he doesn't have one."

"So Yamagishi didn't do it either?"

"Correct."

Ran hummed thoughtfully. "Well, now that you say that, why does Fujie-san have the hair?"

"Because he was killed shortly after grabbing her hair." Shinichi froze. Something sprung from his memory. He pointed down, motioning he wanted to go back to the floor.

"Doesn't that make Yuuko-san the only one who could have done it?" Ran asked as she crouched down. She stood up and followed Shinichi back to the middle of the floor, where he inspected the area around the body carefully.

"Not necessarily. First off, Fujie-san wouldn't have entered the apartment unless he thought Yoko-san was home, so it wouldn't be likely for him to enter the apartment and get stabbed in the back. And remember, Yuuko-san probably would have lied about being here if she had known her hair was still in the victim's grasp. No, see this indent here?" Shinichi pointed to the crater in the hardwood floor. Ran nodded. "This is the mark the knife made as it entered Fujie-san's back." Ran's face went pale when she understood.

"Oh no..."

Shinichi's mind raced as he put together the last few clues. "He froze the handle in a block of ice to make it stand blade point upward. He moved all but the chair from the middle of the room to give himself space to fall on the knife. Turning up the heat caused the ice to melt in the time it would take for Yoko-san to return home. He clutched the hair in his hand to frame her. The evidence will be his fingerprints on Yoko-san's hairbrush, the source of the hair. His motive: after being violently rejected by Yuuko-san, who he assumed was Yoko-san, he fell into despair and hatred." Shinichi looked up at Ran after his explanation. Tears were dripping down her face. Oh no. "Ran, I, uh..." Shinichi struggled to come up with some sort of way to comfort her. Anything to stop the tears.

"I'm okay." She wiped her eyes on her sleeve, then offered her shoulder to Shinichi. "Let's tell Dad before he makes another wrong accusation." She stood up, Pikachu on her shoulder, and approached the detective and inspector right when Kogorou started accusing Yamagishi again.

Ran managed to hold back her tears until the end, where they silently made trails down her cheeks as she explained the why of the suicide. When she finished, a policeman rushed into the apartment with the victim's diary, confirming much of the sentiments Shinichi had suspected. Yamagishi confessed he had made Fujie break up with Yoko for her career, and the fingerprints were found on the hairbrush.

* * *

The case was solved, but Shinichi couldn't help feeling terrible. Of course Ran would find it tragic and heart-wrenching. What had he been thinking, using her to reveal his investigation findings? He peeked out from his reading nook to watch her cook dinner in silence. Her face still betrayed evidence of her tears, and her dull movements reflected her heart, still wounded from empathy.

Shinichi decided he wouldn't use her to give full deductions from then on. He was going to solve cases on his own, as soon as the voice changer worked. Until then he'd settle with having Ran translate hints to Kogorou. As much as Shinichi hated undue credit going to the old man, he hated seeing Ran cry more.

Ran quietly placed a plate of food on the top of the fridge. She flashed him a tired smile, then picked up the plates for herself and her father.

"Wait, Ran." Shinichi stopped her, so she stopped. They stared. Shinichi didn't know what he wanted to say, precisely. How he wished he could express his feelings like Ran could.

Ran smiled up at him again. "It's okay, I'll be fine, Shinichi. Don't worry about me, I'll be stronger next time."

Shinichi didn't know how to tell her how wrong she was. "You're the strongest person I know." That worked, he supposed. He hadn't meant for it to be so embarrassing to tell her, but at least he got out his thoughts for once. To be honest, it was easier when he knew Ran was the only one who could hear him.

Oh great, look what you did Shinichi, she started crying again. It was just some tearing up, but she'd gone through enough. "I, I know, I'm strong in the sense of, karate," Ran stammered, voice choked with emotion, "but I'm not, um, not emotionally."

"Ran, wait!" Shinichi tried to stop her again, but she took the plates out of the kitchen. He sighed and stared at the food. It was something he knew was quick and easy for her, but more importantly, it was definitely not Pokémon food. That meant he couldn't follow her. As much as he enjoyed Ran's cooking, it was a delicacy only to be eaten in private. If Mouri knew Shinichi wasn't eating the cheaper Pokémon chow, he wouldn't be happy.

After dinner Shinichi tried to tell Ran she didn't have to worry about solving cases, but she just shook her head, and that was that. Shinichi sighed and understood they'd trapped themselves in a cycle. She wanted to keep doing it for him, but he wanted to stop doing it for her, but she knew how important it was to solve cases, but he knew how hard it was for her, but—and so on. Why did they both have to care so much for each other, and why wouldn't one of them just let one care harder?

More than ever Shinichi wished he could go back to being human.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, one month later and I'm still doing this fic, which is good news for ya'll. I would probably gotten this out sooner, but I worked on what is now the fourth chapter before starting this one, so working on two at once led to a later release. But hey, this just means the next chapter is that much sooner to completion. Just know that except for the time before Christmas, where I was rushing to get different gift projects done, I had been working on this fic slowly and maybe consistently if you squint. So yeah, I think if I continue being chill about how much I work on this, it'll keep getting updated.
> 
> Speaking of other chapters, the next partially written chapter is Haunted Mansion Case - Episode 20 / Volume 2: Files 8-10 (017-019). I'm going somewhat closer to the manga order, skipping cases that doesn't seem too different or interesting concerning the changes to the world in this AU. Oh, except, of course, 1 Billion Yen Robbery Case - Episode 13 and 128 / Volume 2: Files 4-7 (013-016). I think the placement of this case, or rather, the effects this case have on the story as a whole, makes a lot more sense in the anime, so I'll be writing it when I'm ready to introduce Haibara.
> 
> If I skip a case you want covered and have cool ideas for it that I didn't come up with, feel free to ask me to do them. Same goes for if you have a favorite anime original that I skip. Speaking of, I might do anime originals if I feel like I can fit them in well enough. As you might know, the progression of when Conan gets his gadgets is a little different in the anime, though, so it might be difficult to slot them in. As a general rule of thumb, I'm making sure that no matter what case it is, I'm not going to write them off as just impossible due to the AU, rather my policy is to stuff as many Pokemon as possible into the story to make it work again. I only want to skip a case if I think it'd just be boring and repetitive to retell in this AU.
> 
> For example, Mysterious Shadow Case - Episode 38 / Volume 2: Files 1-3 (010-012). All that would change is Shinichi gets to tell Ran, who tells Kogorou, that the victim was not tailed through the weekend. Halfway through, the tailed person died and in his place was a doppelganger hired to pretend to be the victim. They would still somehow trick a confession out of the murderer, perhaps Ran would agree to challenge him alone with a method to secretly record his confession, and he would still be caught before leaving Japan. Too similar.
> 
> "Wasn't this chapter similar to the canon case?" Yes, but I used Yoko's case to establish the difficulty Ran and Shinichi will have to deal with when solving together.
> 
> "Will you do more cases too similar to the canon case?" Yes, due to broader story stuff, I feel some cases do need to be covered. The 1 Billion Yen Robbery Case will likely be another such case. But who knows, maybe I can sneak more Pokemon into it and make it more interesting.
> 
> Hm, so, yes. Long end note, sorry. Long chapter too, I try to keep them between 3k and 4k words. Still, I didn't go over 5k, so it's fine. Well, maybe with this note I did. Thanks for reading!


	4. A Haunted Mansion Murder Case

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A haunted mansion down a forsaken street is supposedly teeming with Ghost Type Pokemon, but the scream people hear from that mansion at night are not the sounds of Pokemon, but a human man. Intrigued, Shinichi sets off to find out the mystery behind them, but not without a certain few informants that caught on to his plan and wouldn't let him explore alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops it's been a while, hasn't it! So much for being confident about frequent updates. I'm not gonna be too hard on myself, though, some personal stuff happened, but now that it's over I'm excited to continue!
> 
> No art again, sorry. Writing and drawing are different energies.
> 
> Also! In case you're worried about Gen 8 spoilers, don't worry, there won't be any mention of anything from the new games, especially since I haven't even watched the London arc in DetCo yet.

Haunted Mansion Case - Episode 20 / Volume 2: Files 8-10 (017-019)

Shinichi stood at the gate of the abandoned mansion. Honestly he didn't mind setting out to explore it in the first place, when he'd heard from the local Pokémon that a human scream had been heard from this mansion for years now, it became a priority. Of course, he'd known about the place as a human, but assumed all the screaming had been the fun of trickster Ghost Types. Apparently Pokémon could tell the difference.

"Maybe we should come back in the morning..." The Smoochum at his side muttered under her breath.

Shinichi glanced at her, already his companions were testing his patience. It had been her idea to come here when the ghosts were most active in order to interrogate them.

"You're just saying that because you have a type disadvantage," the Munchlax on his other side criticized.

"Said the Normal Type," the fourth member of their mansion investigation squad, a Treecko, quipped in response.

"What does that have to do with anything?" the Munchlax asked forcefully.

Of course, Ghost Type Pokémon were still confirmed to be living there, and who knows how strong and territorial they were. It wasn't Shinichi's intention to bring backup, though. No, if he wanted that he would have asked Lucian for help. These three happened to be the Pokémon he overheard speaking about the haunted mansion. When he asked too many questions, they caught on to his plan to go in. After that they jumped on board and wouldn't let him go alone. No really, they jumped on him and refused to let him up if he didn't promise to bring them along.

He figured out these three were young Pokémon at that point.

Ayumi was the name of the Smoochum. From what Shinichi had observed of her, she was thoughtful when it came to people and their emotions, but not very mindful of the cause and effect of her actions, and tended to be courageous more out of naivety than real courage, though she did have her moments.

The Munchlax went by Genta, he was large for his age and species, and full of bluster and strength, and could be a bit of a bully. The time he threatened the Treecko into accompanying them to the mansion came to mind as a good example. Still, Genta was extroverted and spoke his mind with truthfulness and purpose, and he could prove dependable. Oh, and he was obsessed with food.

Out of the three, Mitsuhiko, the Treecko, seemed to be the only one somewhat prepared for the excursion. He had good head knowledge of battling and was well taught in theory, but he was without much experience. A skeptical type, he believed the mansion didn't house any sort of humans, just very skilled ghost mimickers.

"It could still be just a Misdreavus making those screams," Mitsuhiko had reminded Shinichi at the time.

"Don't Misdreavus normally sound like girl humans though?" Genta had asked.

"And don't they normally live in Kansai?" Ayumi had followed up.

"There are male Misdreavus too! And not always!"

...

Shinichi felt someone poke his shoulder. "Conan? Conan?"

"Yeah?" he answered, facing Ayumi and breaking from his thoughts. He still wasn't quite used to responding to his Pokémon name yet.

"Are we ready to go in? If we stay out here any longer Genta might knock Mitsuhiko out before we even fight any Ghost Types." Ayumi motioned to the boys. Mitsuhiko had climbed to the top of the elaborate gate to the mansion, and Genta struggled on his toes to reach him.

"Cut it out! We're going in," Shinichi announced after a nod to Ayumi.

"Oh!" Genta immediately forgot about Mitsuhiko and pointed down the street. "Follow me! I found a shortcut inside!" With that he rushed down a nearby alley. When the others followed him, they found themselves at a small wooden door in the wall, well hidden in the tall, uncut grass. Too small for a human to use comfortably, unless they were young, but not well crafted enough for your average child or Pokémon to make it either.

Shinichi smiled. "Well done, Genta." The Munchlax swelled to an even greater size with pride and held the door open for Ayumi. But just Ayumi. After going in himself, he slammed the door on Mitsuhiko's face.

"Ow."

Shinichi took his time entering after Mitsuhiko, he studied the craftsmanship, trying to get a clue on who made it, and why. As expected, the door was new, much younger than the gate and the wall around it. He bounded across the lawn to the other Pokémon, who had found a small side entrance to the building.

A strange feeling coursed through Shinichi's body, leaving him with an urge to violently twitch his tail. In the moment he struggled to understand it, lightning illuminated the overcast sky. Realization hit the moment a huge boom of thunder rang out, spooking most of them, but especially scaring Ayumi. She screamed and covered her head, trembling.

"There goes our surprise advantage," Mitsuhiko muttered.

"You idiot! Help me get Ayumi inside!" Genta yelled. Mitsuhiko yelped as he was grabbed around the middle, and Shinichi could only watch as the Munchlax tossed his friend at the doorknob. Thankfully for Mitsuhiko, he righted himself midair and grabbed the door with his hands and feet, sticking the landing. Genta pouted. "Man, I was hoping you'd splat into it and open the door by force."

"I'm not nearly heavy enough for that!" Mitsuhiko said, still hanging off the thick, wooden door. Even with the rain coming on and making the surface slick, the miniscule hooks in a Treecko's feet could allow them to stick to anything.

"Turn the knob, we'll push from down here," Shinichi said, taking command and position by the door. The plan formulated, the small team of Pokémon went into action, a recovered Ayumi included, and pushed the door open.

"I hate how my most challenging enemies now are  _doors_ ," Shinichi muttered.

The four of them carefully padded inside. The interior was dusty and dim, and though the stale air made it hard to smell, under the mustiness was the faint smell of melted candle wax. How quaint.

"Wow, it's gross in here," Genta pointed out.

Mitsuhiko scowled at Genta. "Don't insult a ghost's house, you'll get us attacked."

"Oh—Uh, I mean, it's not gross! It's fine, ghosts! I like your, uh..." Genta searched the room, "your giant creepy statue collection!"

Ayumi hid behind Shinichi when she noticed the large statues too, and Shinichi couldn't blame her, they were exceedingly creepy. One of them was a large, ferocious-looking Gyarados with the sculpted body of a woman hanging limp in its jaws. Another had Yveltal, the legendary Pokémon of destruction, in a sort of grim reaper type role, perched on a large gravestone. Its tail feathers had stabbed a human man straight through the chest, pinning him into the grave. Along with other horrors.

Shinichi knew artists could be troubled, but he couldn't imagine anyone wanting to make one of these, let alone people who would buy or make more than one like this. Ayumi squeaked with fear as he left her side to inspect the statues more carefully, looking for some sort of plaque or engraved signature.

"Do you think the ghosts are coming?" Genta whispered to Mitsuhiko.

"No, but they definitely know we're here." Mitsuhiko leaned against one of the statues, trying to look casual, but Shinichi could tell he looked just as disturbed by them as everyone else. "What Ghost Types love to do is mess with us little by little, building tension before—BOO!" Mitsuhiko feinted a leap at Genta, and was successful in making the Munchlax flinch and take a step back. "—before leaping out and scaring you real good. If they attacked us now it wouldn't make for as good a scare."

"I was only playing along, you didn't actually get me," Genta insisted, leaning in threateningly towards Mitsuhiko. The Treecko arched his back over the stand of the statue he was leaning on to get a few more inches of distance between his face and Genta's.

"Y-yeah, of course."

Shinichi returned to the other three after inspecting the statues. He hadn't found anything suspicious about them, but locked what he found into his memory anyways. "We're moving to the next room," he announced. The three of them nodded and followed him out.

They entered into the main entrance hall. Another statue stood between a couple of staircases leading to the second floor, thankfully not as creepy as the rest of the collection. More large, arched doorways led to other parts of the ground floor of the mansion, with sections of smaller hallways accessible from the lofted part of the floor upstairs. The opposite wall had the main double doors entrance. A faint rattling echoed through the room as the rain hit the windows.

"This is starting to feel like a real adventure now!" Genta commented as they climbed the stairs.

"Mm-hmm!" Ayumi agreed with a hum. "It's just like the old stories of exploration and rescue teams!"

"Hmm?" Shinichi gave the trio a questioning look before he could stop himself.

"You don't know them?" Mitsuhiko asked, amazement in his voice. "The stories of Pokémon doing great, heroic things in a world without humans?"

"I, uh, grew up raised really only by humans," Shinichi excused himself, which technically wasn't too much of a lie... Actually, the more Shinichi thought about it, the more it felt like a lie.

"Usually the teams have a leader, a fighter, and an item master!" Mitsukiko explained.

"I'm definitely the leader!" Genta announced with no evidence whatsoever.

"Oh! I can be a cute fighter! Like Medicham!" Ayumi punched the air, signifying her power.

"And I'll be the item master, naturally!" Mitsuhiko stood on is toes, making himself a little bit taller.

Shinichi tilted his head with confusion. "Then what would I be?"

"Um, well," Ayumi put a hand to her chin in thought, "when there's a fourth member they're usually either the super smart super talented solo adventurer, or the weak escort who gave the mission."

Genta laughed. "Conan's definitely the weak escort."

Shinichi quirked an eyebrow at the Munchlax. "Oi oi..."

"What? You were the one who wanted to come here, so we accepted your mission!" Genta argued.

The casual conversation was cut off when a door down the hallway creaked and drifted open, without an obvious cause at all. Suddenly Shinichi found himself pushed to the forefront of the party. He glanced over his shoulder and found the other three huddled behind him, a feat considering his small size. Shinichi couldn't help considering the children the escorts, and himself the super smart super talented adventurer.

"Do the heroes always send the escort into danger first?" Shinichi asked coyly.

"Shut up and take a look!" Genta insisted.

"Alright alright..." Shinichi pushed forward on all fours. Finally he reached the door and peeked around it, taking in an empty room with a wide open window, the walls lined with almost entirely bare bookcases. He stood up and wandered in, relieved to have a breath of fresh outdoor air, even if it was storming outside.

"Oh, was it just the window?" Ayumi bounced onto a chair next to the open window and peeked outside, the other two trickling into the room after her.

Genta grunted, "Are you sure there are ghosts here in the first place?"

"Yeah, the wind blew open the door which was let in from the window which was opened by the Ghost Types," Mitsuhiko insisted.

Shinichi nodded. "He's right, the floor below this window should be ragged by the elements if the window was left open as long as the rest of the place was left to collect dust."

"So this was opened recently?" Ayumi asked as she gripped one of the window panes and pushed it closed. Mitsuhiko climbed up the wall and helped her with the other side.

"I'd be very impressed with the durability of this carpet if it wasn't. In fact I'd need to ask where they got it." Shinichi laughed at his own joke.

"Why do you need carpet?" Genta looked completely mystified.

Whoops. Shinichi smiled a definitely genuine small. Not at all nervous. "I'm joking, pretending I'm human is hilarious, right?" True, it wasn't a huge deal if a few Pokémon suspected him strange, but too many and it could get back to the Black Organization somehow. They'd find out through telepathy or something.

Genta shrugged. "I guess?"

"Come on, we need to find the ghosts and find out what's happening here." Shinichi refocused the group on their mission and led them out of the room and further down the hallway.

Beyond a few ominous old house settling sounds here and there, nothing else super spooky happened. The upstairs hallway was one big square that looped on itself, so by the time the group passed the open window-bare library room the third time, Shinichi was starting to get impatient. He was sure the ghosts would have tried to prank them again by now, but this was getting boring.

"Oh Ghost Type Pokémon! Get out here, I wanna talk to you!" Shinichi yelled, making his companions yelp with surprise.

"Conan!"

" _Geez, quiet down, you'll alert the Mistress._ "

" **AHHH!** "

The trio cowered behind Shinichi as a voice with no source echoed around them. Shinichi stood his ground, looking back and forth, down the hallway one way, then the other way.

"Can you show yourself? I need to talk to you about something important," Shinichi insisted.

" _Well, since you asked so politely._ "

The trio behind Shinichi could barely contain their screams as a Gengar poked his head out from through the floor and snickered at them.

" _Boo._ "

The Gengar didn't even do anything but speak, yet Genta and Mitsuhiko yelled and bolted down the hallway. Shinichi sighed as he heard them stumble down the stairs, and presumably rush out the door. Ayumi stayed clinging to Shinichi's back, and he wasn't sure if that was braver than the boys or not. Wait, yeah, probably braver.

"So, whatcha need, bub?" The Gengar floated out of the floor and reclined in the air on his back, arms propping up his head and stubby legs crossed.

"I need to know about the screams that can be heard here. The _human_ screams." Shinichi gave the ghost a hard look.

"Geez, don't need to be so serious. I've actually been waiting for someone to ask for a while now." 

Huh? 

The Gengar grinned a terrible grin. "Come with me." He reached out and grabbed the top of Shinichi's head before he could react and pulled both him and Ayumi through the floor, down to the first floor. Unfortunately, the Gengar didn't have the courtesy of keeping them incorporeal and weightless long enough to gracefully place them on the floor, so hard they fell.

"Ouchie!" Ayumi whined.

"Yeah," Shinichi agreed with a groan.

He looked up. The Gengar was hovering above them, snickering about what basically amounted to a low effort pitfall trap. The room was more significant. It was a real library, unlike the small study upstairs. Bookshelves stood against nearly every section of wall, with a large, well crafted desk sitting just off to the center of the room. Only one thing stood on the desk, a framed photograph. 

Shinichi's curiosity made him momentarily forget about the ghost. He bounded over to the desk and leaped atop it. He took the frame in his hands and studied it, but his eyes struggled to make out the features of the three faces in the dim light. But still, with the research Shinichi had done on this house, there was only one truth to who these people were.

"Are these the former owners of this house?"

"Less former than you think, but yeah."

Shinichi shrugged, he wasn't surprised the family never managed to sell the property, after all, the man seated in the center of the photo died five years ago, and the murderer was never caught. Shinichi turned back to the Gengar, who was picking on Ayumi by tossing books at her with ghostly telekinesis.

"Stop that, what are you, five?" Shinichi scolded first off. "What's your name?"

"Hm?" Ayumi sighed with relief with the ghost distracted. Then a pile of books dropped on her.

" _Hey!_ "

"The Mistress calls me Yorick." The Gengar giggled with glee as Shinichi dropped the frame to help Ayumi from her book tomb.

"How fitting," Shinichi muttered under his breath. "Who's this 'Mistress' you keep mentioning?"

"She's the one who told me to gather some ghost buddies and party here! But then the big hairy guy kept screaming all the time and not in the funny way, like your friends did, so then all we got were nasty ghosts who wanted to feed off the poor guy's pain, and Mistress wasn't having that, so she sent me to get rid of 'em. Now it's just lil' ol' me!"

As Yorick rambled Ayumi went back to hiding behind Shinichi's back, a fair reaction.

"Why did she ask you to haunt the place? Was she trying to hide something?" Shinichi asked next.

"Probably the hairy guy. Keeps him under lock and key every day, all day." Yorick shrugged. "No idea why."

Shinichi felt rage spark within him. "Where is she keeping him? This ends tonight."

Yorick laughed, but it wasn't the same trickster laugh as before. It was somehow somber-sounding. "Good luck with that. There's a hidden entrance to the basement. Trap door, down the hallway, take a right, then a left, then a right to a dead end." 

He floated in real close to Shinichi's face, so much the ghost took up his whole vision, and the poisonous fumes that made up the ghost's body were starting to suffocate him. 

" _Don't let Mistress see you._ "

He faded from sight. 

Shinichi coughed out the fumes and gulped in breaths of stale, but healthy air.

Ayumi pressed into him and whimpered, "I wanna go home."

An internal struggle raged on whether to stop to make sure the trio he had arrived with were all safe, or whether it was more important to rescue the man locked up downstairs. Fortunately Shinichi didn't need to decide, but unfortunately he started hearing footsteps down the hallway.

" _Hide._ " Shinichi whispered and ducked behind a cardboard box filled with books, sitting out on the floor. Ayumi followed him quickly enough, just in time to peek out with him and watch a ghastly woman walk by the library's doorway, illuminated by a well supplied and lit candelabra. To Shinichi's surprise, she was pushing a metal cart with layered shelves, the kind used to transport food around a hotel or something of the sort.

When the footsteps safely quieted, Shinichi moved on all fours to reduce noise and crept out the door, Ayumi following behind. He stopped at every corner, both to listen and figure out which way he needed to go. He followed Yorick's directions until he came to a fork, one way went to the exit, the room with all the statues, and the other was the way Yorick directed him.

"Go down that way and leave, find Mitsuhiko and Genta and go home together. I'll save him."

Ayumi shook her head and whispered hoarsely, "What if that Mistress lady is that way? Please don't leave me alone." Shinichi tightened his jaw as he struggled with what to do.

"OK, do you want to be a hero, like the legends? You'll have to be brave." Shinichi tried to smile comfortingly.

It seemed to be working, because Ayumi nodded and started to look more confident. "I can do that. I'm the cute fighter!" Shinichi couldn't help but smile.

"Exactly. Let's go." He turned down the corner to where the trap door was supposed to be. From the fresh scent of melting wax, it seemed the Mistress had gone this way too. That would be troublesome.

They came to the dead end like Yorick said, so Shinichi started searching for the trap door. It wasn't hard to find, the line in the dust was quite evident. The trick would be getting it open.

Shinichi pulled at the small indented handle in the floor, but no dice. It was simply too heavy. "Doors are going to become a common difficulty, aren't they?" Shinichi glanced at Ayumi. "Would you happen to know how to use telekinesis?"

"No, sorry..."

"It's OK. We'll just have to be more clever." More clever than physics, though?

Shinichi sat down and tried to make a plan. They could wait until the woman next opened the door. Sneaking in after her would be too risky, though. Maybe not for just himself, but if he took Ayumi home, he might miss his opportunity.

Something occurred to Shinichi. That woman was frail, way too frail to lift a heavy trap door like this. After all, he could see what the door was made of through the hole made for the handle, and a solid stone trap door wasn't possible for someone of her figure. There had to be some sort of mechanical part to it.

He returned to his search, this time checking things that could trigger mechanisms at the hinge. He pulled at the carpet near the hinge and found a small panel screwed down into the floor. He used one of his claws to work the panel open, took one look at the device and knew he could activate it from here if he sent a controlled jolt of electricity at the perfect spot.

Shinichi took a deep breath and flexed the muscles around his electric cheek pouches, slowly bringing the static to a point where he could aim it. Then he released. His aim was true, it struck the exact part with the perfect amount of power. With a click and a chug of a small motor, the trap door lifted.

"Wow!" Ayumi forgot to keep her voice to a whisper for a moment, but slapped her hand over her mouth when she realized. "Sorry."

He nodded at her. "Ready to go in?"

"Um, hang on..." She paused and fiddled with her hands, eyes on the floor. "Conan, I don't think you're the escort. You're the super smart super talented solo adventurer for sure."

Shinichi blinked. He hadn't really expected that, and although he didn't have the exact context of the stories they'd been discussing earlier, he was still flattered. "Thank you, uh, shall we?"

Ayumi nodded enthusiastically, and together they descended. They went down one flight of stone stairs, then another, and another, each zig-zagging down further and further, until they were well under the house. At the bottom was a door outlined with light, the only clue there was a door down there at all, the darkness was so encompassing.

The two of them carefully pried at the crack in the door until Shinichi could put his eye to it and see a decent amount. Half of the room was sectioned off by iron bars, to his surprise. The left side of the room was surprisingly sparse, especially compared to the interior of the cell. Shinichi could tell the cell was once well decorated, with a tablecloth on the small, round table at the bedside, a curtain once covered the back wall of the cell, and the bed itself looked like it could be comfortable, far from a prisoner's cot. 

All this decor had been long torn to shreds. Unnerving.

Shinichi pushed his way inside and approached the cell. Ayumi followed him dutifully. There was a man curled up in the bed, his face covered by his hands, and dressed in a ragged and torn t-shirt. His main feature was his long, matted hair, uncut and unbrushed, likely not since he before he was imprisoned.

While the translation bow tie would certainly let him speak to the prisoner, Shinichi hesitated to use it around Ayumi.

"Ayumi-chan, I need to trust you with a very important secret. Can I trust you?"

She looked surprised, but nodded quickly. "Anything, Conan! I won't even tell Genta or Mitsuhiko!"

Shinichi nodded approvingly. "Good. See, because my friend is an inventor, I can use my bow tie to speak to humans." He pulled back on the tie and showed her the mechanisms behind the device. Ayumi looked quite wowed. "I'm going to use it to explain to him that we need to know how to free him." He began cranking down the volume on the device, hoping the tinny, inauthentic voice wouldn't scare him too badly that way.

"He—RRRR **RRIIIII** —" The terrible sound of feedback filled the tiny room, and Shinichi quickly turned off the device. It seems he had cranked the volume _up_ instead of down. Stupid!

The man in the cell started screaming. Horribly, and far too loudly, both for their comfort and safety. The two Pokémon covered their ears helplessly.

"That's it! That's the scream!" Ayumi shouted above the noise.

Shinichi was too busy searching for a hiding place, anywhere would work. The bed? Perhaps he could squeeze through the bars of the cell, but Ayumi likely couldn't. The only things outside the cell were a bucket and a tall locker.

...

The woman entered the secret room. The man's pained screams had stopped, leaving only the clicking of her shoes against stone brick to break the quiet.

"Another nightmare? Poor thing..."

Shinichi and Ayumi had pressed themselves into the corner, the thin slot between the locker and the wall furthest from the only exit. Shinichi was surprised to hear sympathy from the captor.

"That happened five years ago, please forget about it already. There is no return from death."

When Shinichi peeked from his hiding spot, catching the faces of the captor and captive, he realized this wasn't any ordinary case.

The woman slid a portion of the cell aside and pushed a tray of food through. "Eat up."

The man, seemingly beyond feral now, knocked aside the tray, spilling the contents everywhere. From his position by the locker, Shinichi couldn't tell if the woman reacted at all.

"I'm keeping you here for your own good, not to torture you. Think of your future."

Though the situation was one of tragedy, Shinichi couldn't help but smile as he realized the truth of the matter.

Ayumi drew a sharp breath beside him, and he looked back at her just in time to see the handle of a broom falling past him. Panic shot through him as he flailed his tiny arms to try to catch it. A sudden burst of quick thinking helped him turn and catch the broom with his tail just in time. 

He let himself feel relieved far too soon. In order to catch the broom, he'd had to let the locker support his weight, and while he couldn't weigh much more than five kilograms, it was enough to destabilize the bucket resting on top of the locker. Shinichi struggled to pull the broom closer so he could take his weight off the locker, but it was proving too heavy for his tail to do much more than keep it from clattering to the floor. With a sinking feeling deep in his heart, Shinichi heard the bucket crash to the ground, and with that jolt, so did the broom slip from his grasp.

Shinichi pushed himself and Ayumi further behind the locker, praying the woman would assume it her own placement of the items that caused the fall.

"It appears Yorick failed to properly frighten all of you away..." The faintest sound of metal scraping against stone echoed in the room. Shinichi suddenly remembered the woman had brought a large kitchen knife down to skin an apple with. If he didn't do something that would skin more than an apple tonight. "Don't hide any longer."

"It should be you who won't hide any longer." This time Shinichi had remembered to bring the bow tie translator to a proper volume. "Though the years have changed you, I recognize you both from the picture in the study. You, the wife of the man who once owned this mansion, and he in the cell, he has to be your son, the mole under his left eye clued me in there."

He paused, he could hear the shuddering breaths of everyone in the room.

"When I heard the rumor of Ghost Types haunting this house, I wasn't surprised, sites of murders quickly abandoned often attract ghosts looking for a home, but when I heard the screams weren't that of Pokémon, but of a man's, I became curious. As I investigated, everything made me more and more suspicious. The small door in the wall by the alley especially. It was clearly built after the death of the head of the household, but ghosts have no need for a door, let alone a secret one.

"The only explanation is that you created it in order to live here in secret, and with the evidence I found, plus the things I just heard, I think I know exactly why. And why you felt it necessary to jail your own son."

"...Why do you speak with a voice made of metal? Who are you?..."

Shinichi stepped out from behind the locker.

"Conan, a detective!

"Given you've said this circumstance is for your son's sake, I can only imagine one truth. He killed his father, and when he couldn't handle the grief and guilt, you locked him up to keep him from confessing until the statute of limitations had passed, or he no longer desired to turn himself over."

" _Yorick! Kill it!_ "

Yorick jumped from the shadows and pinned Shinichi against the wall, knocking the breath out of him. The Gengar prepared a Shadow Ball in a free fist and edged it closer and closer to Shinichi's head. Shinichi struggled to flex the electricity pouches in his cheeks and do anything at all, but he couldn't even reproduce the smallest of shocks he used on the hinge of the trap door.

" **Now, Yorick!** "

" _Conan!_ "

"STOP!"

Yorick stopped moving, Shinichi could only hear his own heartbeat in his head as the room fell dead quiet.

"Please stop, the Pikachu is right, I killed him. I killed father..."

Through tears the man told his story, of failing his university entrance exams for the third time. At his father's heartless scolding, the son had blacked out with rage for but a moment, but the deed was done. He no longer wanted to live in fear of that knowledge, that it ruined more years of his life than any failed exam. He wanted to pay for the crime and live again.

Yorick had kindly set Shinichi back on the floor, even going so far as to dust the grit off his back for him, then disappeared back into the shadows with a grin. Shinichi nodded. He knew what Yorick needed him to do.

"If you keep him here, he will escape trial and the process of law, but he will never feel forgiven for his crime," Shinichi continued to speak through the translator. "Do you intend to make him carry that weight for the rest of his life?"

With that, the mother understood.

* * *

"Psst! Shinichi!"

"Hwua?" Shinichi groggily looked up at Ran's face, his nap on the Mouri Detective Agency couch rudely interrupted. "Whatssat?" he slurred.

Ran held up a newspaper article. The faces of the mother and son from the night before were printed in black and white. "Remember that murder case at that one haunted mansion? Well, it wasn't haunted at the time, but I remember you were interested in it. The murderer finally came clean. It's actually really sad. I'll put it up in your reading nook."

"Thanks, but I don't need to read it. I was there."

"What? Wait, is THAT where you disappeared to last night? Shinichi!"

Shinichi was already drifting back off before Ran could question him further.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah! That's how I'm handling the Detective Boys! I thought it fit best, seeing as their role in DetCo is to adopt Conan into the world of children, so why not have the kids help him into the world of Pokemon here! I'm sure you're curious why each of them are what they are, so here's a quick explanation.
> 
> Ayumi's a Smoochum because overall it just fits her, a Smoochum's hair looks similar to her hairstyle, Ayumi typically wears pink and yellow, main colors, and of course the puppy love kisses. Ayumi has a lot of pure love in her heart and Smoochum really fits that!
> 
> Mitsuhiko is a Treecko because, for one thing, the names rhyme. I'm kidding, that's not all. Again, they look very similar to each other, with the large eyes, small pupil, Mitsuhiko's bangs look a bit similar to the valley between Treecko's eyes, and overall they're both thin and beanpole-ish. Plus, Treecko just reads nervous but smart in its character design, like Mitsuhiko.
> 
> Genta was pretty easy. Munchlax love food, Genta love food. Same body shape, same eye shape and design, etc. I don't think anyone will disagree with me here.
> 
> Speaking of disagreeing, I'm interested to hear what you think would fit these three best! And Haibara, too, if you feel so inclined, although I will keeping my plans for her close to my chest.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
